What a Flock of Geese Can Tell Us about Team Building
Science has discovered that the reason that geese fly in V formation is because
as each bird flaps its wings, it creates uplift for the bird immediately following.
By flying in a V formation, the whole flock adds at least 70% greater flying
range than if each bird flew on its own.
When the team shares a common direction, they get to where they are going quicker
and easier. They travel with trust of one another and lift each other up along
the way. We as social workers can gain insight from the geese. We must value
and support those who are flying along our path in order to better support ourselves.
When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back so that the next in line can
take over. We must learn to share leadership and take turns doing hard jobs.
The geese honk from behind to encourage others to keep going. Our words of support
and inspiration help all on our team to deal with day-to-day pressures and fatigue,
and to avoid burnout.
The lessons are obvious:
Ÿ Teammates who share knowledge of the project’s
purpose and direction will be able to reach their goals faster.
Ÿ They
will share a heightened sense of commonality.
Ÿ They will feel stronger and more powerful
in their work and be able to accomplish more together than any one of them could
have accomplished alone.
However, teams need good leaders and team building is an art that must be taught!
A major role of the team’s leader is to take steps to open dialogue with
workers from across all levels of the hierarchy by bringing together a “diagonal
slice” of the organization. We often work in Silos thus making our individual
jobs harder.
Broadening the range of participants on our teams can add valuable information
and insights. Including finance personnel on team projects can enhance the view
of the work, from both perspectives, the bottom line issues and direct client
service. Further enlarging that perspective on particular team projects might
include nurses, art and education therapists, case managers, clerical and maintenance
personnel. In many instances non-traditional team members have a wealth of information
that is not known or incorporated into the care of our clients simply because
we neglected to invite potentially valuable team members to the table.
It is important to strive for a creative culture that is inclusive. In a traditional,
hierarchical, non-creative team, workers are afraid to take risks and offer
suggestions for fear of being dismissed or criticized. When employees feel alienated,
they often experience difficulty in fully participating as members of the clinical
team. The team leader’s job is crucial and requires many of our social
work skills. Moreover, it is necessary for the team leader to examine ways in
which each team member affects how the work is defined, assigned and accomplished.
The team’s leader also plays a key role as the tone setter and facilitator.
It is important to keep a finger on the pulse of staff relations. Thus, it is
necessary to constantly explore how identity group differences affect relationships
between the workers and ultimately affect the way that treatment is perceived
and is done.
Team leaders must “green light” honest discussions about how identity-group
memberships inform and influence the worker’s experience and the team’s
behavior. The leader must also take responsibility for removing barriers that
block workers from using their full array of competencies, cultural or otherwise.
Racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, sexism, classism, and sexual harassment are
the most common forms of dominance that impede individual and team effectiveness.
As leaders, we must have zero tolerance for them. Last but not least, the leader
must embrace fluidity in policies that in times past had been clearly stated
and unquestioningly adhered to.
The team’s leader must take the necessary steps to make sure that the
team meeting is a safe place for workers to be themselves. It is important that
they recognize that tensions will naturally arise as the team begins to have
authentic dialogue, starts to experiment with new processes, programs and treatment
approaches in light of suggestions from newly empowered team members.
Team members who feel good with each other will more likely be more productive
and remain in their jobs longer. We tend to stay longer in organizations where
we feel better about what we do, what we get from our work, and where we feel
valued and taken care of. Often these goals can be achieved with good team leadership
and very little additional financial resources.
When we neglect the importance of the team as a whole, we lose sight of the
possibilities inherent in the V flock of geese. Social workers have so many
different relationships, in supervision, with co-workers, allied professionals,
etc. Too often, our relationships remain distant and vague in themselves, except
that all are in the service to the client. We need to understand the staff we
work with, the community we work in, the community the client lives in, and
how this all relates to service to our clients.
Making coexistence operational in a team requires bravery, respect for differences,
patience and a commitment to continue to learn. Ultimately, the inclusion of
more authentic voices into the group enriches the treatment team and enhances
services to the clients.